Love Notes
by sen siu
Summary: AU: A promising young musician, Serena Tsukino has just been accepted into the prestigious Tokyo University for Fine Arts and Music. Soon she discovers that Prof. Darien Chiba doesn't plan to make anything easy for her.


Hello, all. Thank you for taking the time to read my fiction!

I'm really excited about this little project, although somewhat apprehensive as I have not had the time and energy to devote to writing in a great while. Now that I finally have some free time, I can write this fic (I've been putting it off for so long--it's terrible really).

As you can see below, this is just the prologue. The chapters following will be much lengthier.

-Sen

**Prologue**

Serena had been sitting on a hard bench in the quiet corridor for nearly thirty minutes. She was almost too bored to be nervous anymore. In a few minutes a man would waltz through those dull wooden doors and possibly tell her what she had been waiting to hear.

Well, whatever they decided, she wished they'd hurry up.

_At eighteen years old, Serena Tsukino was one of the most promising music students in all of Japan. When she was nine she picked up her first violin in her primary school music class. Instantly she was enchanted by the worn old instrument and begged her teacher to allow her to take it home overnight. Ms. Kaneda had disliked Serena. The middle-aged teacher scolded Serena for being selfish, and assured her that valuable school property would never be allowed off premises._

_But after months of skipping lunch to sneak into the practice rooms and borrowing sheet music from the older students, Serena had soon fallen in love with each cry and bellow of her tired instrument. She learned it responded best when running the bow over the strings with a firm caress. She learned every unique sound her instrument could make. And most of all, she learned that her teacher was a very uncompromising woman._

_At the end of the school year, Serena's playing was more advanced than the material given for her age group. The small blonde pleaded with her teacher to allow her to play the more advanced scores for the upcoming concert. The bitter woman would hear nothing of it. She was convinced that no beginner student could progress so rapidly and reprimanded Serena for being arrogant and overconfident._

_When the final concert of the school year came, Serena was determined to play the advanced material. Ken and Irene Tsukino, Serena's parents, were in the crowd and the blonde worried about the consequences of disobeying her teacher. When Ms. Kaneda signaled the orchestra to begin playing their first piece, Serena played proudly with the first violins. If her conductor had noticed, she hadn't shown any signs. The parents in audience took pictures and smiled proudly at their children._

_Soon the musicians were nearing a particularly problematic section of the music. None of the violins had been able to master it in time for the concert, so Ms. Kaneda replaced it with a repeat of the previous eight bars. Not knowing of the change, Serena went on playing with how the piece had been written, inadvertently making herself a soloist._

_After the piece had ended, Ms. Kaneda was livid. She marched over to Serena and wrapped her long fingers around her small upper arm. It wasn't until Mr. and Mrs. Tsukino had rushed over praising Serena and accrediting their daughter's performance to the irate conductor that Ms. Kaneda regained her composure. There was nothing she could do or say without reflecting poorly on herself. For the remainder of the performance she cast ugly looks at Serena, but said nothing._

_By the following year, Serena's parents had bought her her very own violin and hired a private tutor. Ken had worked later every evening to pay for these expenses. Within four years, there wasn't a music instructor in all of Shiga who could teach her anything she hadn't already mastered. Ken sold his house to move Serena to Osaka where a famous retired violinist agreed to take on Serena as a pupil. The new home was nearly half the size of the one they had in Hikone, but her Father remained optimistic and reminded Irene and Serena that they were investing in Serena's future. And now…_

Suddenly, the French doors opened revealing a tall, wiry man wearing a dark blue suit holding a few sheets of paper.

"Ms. Tsukino?" asked, pushing the thick black glasses a little further up the bridge of his nose.

A light blush splayed across her cheeks and nose as she scrambled to fix her skirt and stand up. Embarrassed that she was caught off guard, she nodded, unable to say anything. The man smiled and suddenly all of her nerves and anxiety melted away into a pool at her feet.

"Welcome to Tokyo's National University of Fine Arts and Music, Ms. Tsukino."

I know this isn't much to review so far, but I would appreciate your thoughts on the concept of this story.

More importantly, I need a good title! Love Notes is awful and cheesy. I had only just remembered last minute that I hadn't a name for my ugly fan child.

Thanks. Take care.

-sen


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